video | un: Crash Keys

[21stcenturyguy]

Hey. This isn't one of those 'let's all get to know each other and be best friends' posts. I wanna know what you guys know about telepathy.

[Aoi holds a picture up to the camera. 'Picture' is probably a generous description.]



First, anyone know what this picture is?

Snake, before you even start, I fuckin' KNOW you can't see it, so I'm not asking you.

Don't cheat, just tell me what you think it's supposed to be.

If you're not into pictures, tell me about Archetypes from your world. There was a psychologist on Earth who noticed the same ideas pop up in various cultures that had no contact with one another. I want to see if that collective unconscious spans worlds too. So, I dunno, talk to each other about the legends and fairy tales and holidays and shit from your worlds and lemme know what common threads you find

The Follow-Up Video

[A couple of days later, when it seems like the majority of the people who are gonna weigh in have done so, Aoi makes a follow-up post.]

Alright, I know you all think I was tryin' to psychoanalyze you with the picture I showed you the other day, but trust me, you guys aren't that interesting. There's a right answer to the picture. I'll show you.

[He holds up the original picture and the solution to the screen.]

Some crackpot psychologist did an experiment to test the transference of knowledge through unseen means. He showed a picture like this to a population of people, and the distribution of answers was pretty random, same as you guys'. Then he broadcast the answer to that population. When he went to a to a remote location that had no contact with anyone from Population A. When he showed the same picture, there was a statistically significant increase in the percentage of people who knew the answer.

Even though nobody had consciously shared the information, because more people knew it, the answer was somehow transmitted. So that's the theory of Morphic Resonance.

Comments

[gekkajuu]

[OHGOD please stop being so scary, Aoi. Even having him on his side, Atsushi gets kind of uncomfortable.]

Technically he made me hurt others... [Which is a bigger problem, really, but still a distinction that should be made.] At least someone stopped me before they got hurt too badly.

On a horse...? I don't see it at all.

[21stcenturyguy]

If your mind controller ever shows up here, you let me know. [Some people deserve small bombs inside of them. If Aoi's gotta be the person to put them there in order to protect the world from them, he's willing to do it.]

[And, uh, he'll link Atsushi to the puzzle answer a day early, because the kid's had enough trouble in his life without having weird puzzle stress added to it. So there's that.]

[gekkajuu]

Yes... [Um. Okay. Atsushi isn't sure what just happened, but if Q did show up, he'd probably warn the whole network anyway, so... he doesn't see a problem with making this particular promise.

And he gets the solution to the "puzzle", so yay!]

I see. With the shadow and the random scattered pieces, that's practically impossible to guess... though knowing what it's supposed to be does let you see it, doesn't it?

[21stcenturyguy]

Yeah, that's kind of the point. It eliminates the possibility of blind guessing throwing off the results of the test.

[See, they're moving on from talking about the sketch people from Atsushi's path. No big deal. Aoi's totally a chill dude.]

[gekkajuu]

[Just a chill dude being chill and not murderizing anyone. Good times.]

Oh! Since nobody would randomly happen to get it right? That's pretty clever.

[21stcenturyguy]

[Aoi just kind of shrugs at the camera. It's not the worst test, but it's by no means scientifically rigorous.]

Anyways, it doesn't seem like anyone else had heard of this kind of test so far. I was kinda hoping the idea was something some of the others would be familiar with.

[Oh well, that just means its back to the drawing board for now.]

[gekkajuu]

Maybe it's just too specific? I wouldn't expect anyone to know about it unless they worked in a very specific field of psychology...

Was that the kind of work you did, Kurashiki-san?

[21stcenturyguy]

No, I'm no pyschologist. I traded stocks, actually. But there were at least a couple of organizations that were interested in studying this kinda thing.

[gekkajuu]

Stocks? You?! [Excuse Atsushi, his brain cannot process this.] No - it's just... Kurashiki-san doesn't seem like the type.

["The type" being middle-aged men in suits, probably. Atsushi has no idea what a stock trader looks like, but he's pretty sure it doesn't normally involve arm warmers.]

[21stcenturyguy]

[Wow, brutal. Pick up your jaw off the ground, Atsushi.]

Hey, I can be respectable when I wanna! I clean up pretty nice.

[Also, he is a dirty rotten cheater who used future info to buy up the right stocks, but the more important takeaway here is that Aoi Kurashiki looks damn fine in a suit.]

[gekkajuu]

I-I didn't mean to imply that you weren't!

[He just. Kind of did imply that. Oops?]

You must have had a lot of money...

[21stcenturyguy]

'm totally respectable... [He mutters to himself. Aoi gets no respect around here.]

Yeah, I went from broke to loaded and now I'm back to broke. I've come full fuckin' circle.

[gekkajuu]

You are! You're very respectable!

[How quickly and how much further can he backtrack? He plans to find out!]

I'm sorry you lost your money. I suppose a lot of people are like that... A fresh start is a lot easier if you have nothing to lose.

[Atsushi has lost a lot himself, but only in terms of people - and those people may yet wake up. The rest that he lost, he can do without.]

[21stcenturyguy]

[Man, the back-peddling is worse than insulting. Aoi sighs.]

Kid, we talked about this. Grow a spine. Don't let me tell you what to do.

[He shrugs.]

The money thing's not a big deal. I'm only supporting myself now, so it's fine. [Atsushi's not the only one missing people.]

[gekkajuu]

I won't!

[Wait - does it still count as letting Aoi tell him what to do when what Aoi is telling him is not letting him tell him what to do? Are there any correct replies here!?]

For that matter: I don't! And I'm not sure having a spine features into it...

I see. But people might wake up, right? That's why I'm trying to earn money, myself: so I can support them when they show up.

[21stcenturyguy]

There you go. [It's a little spark of defiance, immediately followed by the reassertion of his spineless status, but it's a start. Intermittent positive reinforcement is supposedly the best way to encourage a behavior, so Aoi gives that a nod.]

That's a nice thought, kid, but do you got people depending on you? [It's not like Aoi's not doing the same thing, trying to build up a life here for when his important people wake up, but he can't imagine Atsushi being the primary breadwinner of any household, to be honest.]

[gekkajuu]

No... If anything, it's been the other way around. The Agency took me in when I had no home and no future...

But that's why I will turn things around, now. I don't want to have to rely on them anymore. And when everyone wakes up, I'll make sure there's a place for them here, just like they gave to me.

[21stcenturyguy]

[This child. It's a good thing they're talking through the network, otherwise Aoi would be doing something stupid like patting his head. Cute as a goddamn button.]

You're a good kid. They're lucky to have you.

[gekkajuu]

[Robbed of headpats... This is why using the internet is bad for you, children.

Atsushi smiles, sincere but with some undertones of awkwardness. He doesn't deserve a compliment like that, and he knows it - but that won't keep him from trying to deserve it in the future!]

It's definitely the other way around.

I hope you'll get to meet them all someday.